Summary: Needham, Massachusetts; General Obligation

S&P Global Ratings assigned its 'AAA' rating to Needham, Mass.' series 2020 general obligation (GO) municipal-purpose loan bonds. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'AAA' rating on the town's existing GO debt. The outlook on all ratings is stable. The town's full-faith-and-credit pledge secures the bonds, subject to Proposition 2 1/2 limitations, thus we view this debt as a limited tax obligation limits. Despite limitations imposed by the commonwealth's levy-limit law on municipal bonds, we do not make a rating distinction between the limited-tax GO pledge and Needham's general creditworthiness, as we have already embedded the tax limitation imposed on the town's ability to raise revenue and resource fungibility into our analysis of its financial and economic

...S&P Global Ratings assigned its '###' rating to Needham, Mass.' series 2020 general obligation (GO) municipal-purpose loan bonds. At the same time, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its '###' rating on the town's existing GO debt. The outlook on all ratings is stable. The town's full-faith-and-credit pledge secures the bonds, subject to Proposition 2 1/2 limitations, thus we view this debt as a limited tax obligation limits. Despite limitations imposed by the commonwealth's levy-limit law on municipal bonds, we do not make a rating distinction between the limited-tax GO pledge and Needham's general creditworthiness, as we have already embedded the tax limitation imposed on the town's ability to raise revenue and resource fungibility into our analysis of its financial and economic conditions. We rate the town higher than the sovereign because we believe it can maintain better credit characteristics than the nation in a stress scenario based on its predominantly locally derived revenue base and...

Summary